A Motor Transportation Officer Tased a 10-year-old boy after the child refused to wash the officer’s car.
Officer Chris Webb said the whole thing was an accident and that he did not know his Taser was loaded, the Courthouse News Service reported according to Huffington Post.
Webb was at the Tularosa New Mexico Intermediate School for career day in May when the incident took place.
The officer had asked a group of boys if any of them wanted to clean his patrol car. The boy, identified as R.D., said he did not want to. That is when Webb allegedly pointed his Taser at the child and said, “Let me show you what happens to people who do not listen to the police.”
Webb’s Taser went off sending two 50,000 volt barbs through the boy’s clothing for five seconds. The jolt made the child pass out, according to NBC News.
The attorney for the boy, Rachael Higgins, said the boy has been suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. He also has scars the size of a cigarette burn, according to court papers.
Webb received a three day, unpaid suspension after the incident. He also stated he waited with the boy in the nurse’s office until the boy’s mother had arrived.
The family is seeking compensation and punitive damages.
